This has been commented on in passing in other threads. Had a bottle last night and can't keep my hands off the keyboard. Luscious stuff from Marlborough, blended with 10% Semillon. Typically herbaceous, but less so than some other NZ SB's I've tried like the Saint Claire. Makes up for it with more fruit and acidity that could make a sad monkey happy. 12% alc., I think it was $14.

Nah, but I do have an 11-year-old son. Close enough, but since he's already a happy fellow, he wonâ€™t be a reliable subject for an SB test.

If you come across a wine whose tasting notes include "will make a black Lab calm," please make sure that I see those, however. Dear Rosabel's utter joy for life seemed especially caffeinated this morning.

I love black lab retrievers and goldens. The exuberant love for life is one of their sterling traits. And they usually are blessed with calm where it counts (patience with tugging fists on toddlers, tolerance of feisty cats, willing to lie down and be quiet as a seeing eye dog, etc.) However, we never trained our golden retrievers as hunting dogs and they were frightened by sudden loud noises such as firecrackers. One was spooked by a lit jack o' lantern. Halloween and 4th of July bring back bittersweet memories of Holly and Duffy.

No labs here. We had a Whippet named KC. Gosh, does that look familar? Had to put her down this past July. Old age really took over and it was quite traumatic after 13 years putting up with her "dumb as a rock" antics. Now that Judy's mom is living with us, we have her miniature poodle, Trouble. Of course, we also have our Himmy named Nebbi. That's short for Nebbiolo, BTW. Fortunately, none of them are/were wine geeks - more for us.